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Saturday, June 15, 2013

Abigail's Birth Story & a look back at my pregnancy.

It dawned on me last night as I was sitting on the floor of my baby's room, Lauren Conrad style crying (see image below) because for the 4th night in a row she wouldn't fall asleep, that I realized I didn't want to forget about any of these ridiculous (sometimes unbearable) moments. And just like that 'Baby A & Mama J 'was born.

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Mascara tears.. Nothing Better.

Pretty much from the moment I found out I was pregnant in late August, I was throwing up. Morning sickness was no joke. And it didn't just last in the morning. I had it morning, noon & night. It felt like for 4 straight months my head was in the toilet. I had hyperemesis gravidarum before Kate Middleton made it cool. I landed myself in the hospital 3 times for IV's of fluids and had managed to drop 17 pounds in the first 3 months of growing a human being, which led me to being put on bed rest for 2 weeks... who does that?!
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Months 4-9 continued to be a shit show. Between the back pain, the swelling and still managing to be nauseous every. single. day., I was struggling to enjoy the whole pregnancy experience.

I remember hitting week 37 and thinking to myself (and probably out loud to ANYONE who would listen) that it was safe for her to come out now and I needed to do everything in my power to get her here.

And then I was waking up on the morning of week 39 and day 3. Pissed. Why was she not budging?! Didn't she know I was miserable?! I had a doctor's appointment that morning (Friday, May 10) so Billy left work to come with me. Side Note: I landed myself BACK on bed rest from the end of week 36 until I delivered because my blood pressure was sky high. Hot. Mess.. anyways.. Walking into the doctors office this was what was going through my mind, 'this is it, doc is going to tell me it's time to go, I'm ready to deliver, go straight to the hospital. you may pass go and collect your $200.' and here is how it really went down.. 'You're not dilated enough, we will see you next week.' Cue the waterworks. I was SO upset!

The day before I went into labor.

So upset in fact, I decided to go to my parents house and cry on their couch for a while. Billy was back to work for the night and I was drowning myself in a bucket of tear filled ice cream. And then around 4pm, my mom came home from work. We chatted for a bit, and I decided to lay back down on her couch to try and get rid of the headache that I gave to myself from crying too much (seriously, get over it!).
And just like that, I felt a POP! in my stomach, something I DEFINITELY had never felt before. I stood myself up, took myself to the bathroom and that's when I realized my water had broke. To spare everyone from the details, it was JUST like the movies, water everywhere. (Which I later found out only happens to about 2% of pregnant women). Once I was over the initial shock, I yelled for my mom and I think it went something like 'MOM!.. I need some towels and my phone!' It took us about 3 seconds to make all of the phone calls we needed to make and get everyone where they needed to be.
Our drive to the hospital was stressful and exciting. I, of course went into labor on a Friday during rush hour and our hospital was 35 minutes away. But Billy and my dad navigated like pros and I was secretly wishing we would get pulled over to just be able to tell the cop I was in labor and get a police escort... how fun?!

I was feeling pretty good when we got all checked in at the hospital and not in much pain at all. And then the story takes a 180..

We were checked in and given a room in the triage unit (not where I would be delivering, just where they check you out to make sure you were really in labor, like the puddle of water surrounding me wasn't a good enough indication). We hung out in that room for what seemed like forever. I was hooked up to an IV and belly monitors, still feeling pretty good. A nurse came in and told me they weren't really picking the baby up on the monitors and I needed to roll over to my side in order to try and hear her better. Sure, no problem! As soon as I turned on my side, I was a different person. I was in full on, excruciating labor. Again, just like you see in the movies. Screaming bloody murder and squeezing my mother's and Billy's hand so hard that I broke a ring on my poor mom's finger. I was having contractions about every 30 seconds for about 3 hours, without drugs. That wasn't my choice, but they couldn't give me an epidural in triage without my doctor's approval, and my doctor was in a C-section.

Right around the 3 hour mark, they finally came in and said they had a delivery room ready for me and I could be wheeled up and get my epidural. WOO! Once I got it, it definitely took the pain away, but I was still so uncomfortable.
The next 12 hours are kind of a blur. I was in the delivery room for such a long time, all night in fact. Things seemed to be going well, I was dilating and contracting but they wanted to try and speed things up a bit, so they gave me Pitocin. And that's when my labor stopped. Completely stopped. I was 7cm for 3 hours. Once I hit that 3 hour mark, the nurses came in and started talking to me about a C-section.

Finally got my epidural, smiling in the delivery room.

From the moment they mentioned the word C-section to being cut open, seemed like 30 minutes. Everything happened SO fast. I was brought into the operating room to be prepped, while Billy waited outside (which was awful!!). I remember laying on the table, all drugged up just thinking to myself, 'don't have a panic attack! If you have a panic attack they won't let you have your baby!'.. Yeah, I was pretty drugged up. ha! Once Billy came in and sat next to me, it seemed like 2 minutes and he was being told to get the camera out because we had a baby!
I'll never forget hearing the first little cry coming out of her mouth and being so relieved. They yelled out her weight and told me she was healthy. Got her cleaned up and they laid her on my chest. To date, it was the best moment of my life. We took our first family photo and they started to stitch (staple) me up. I wish I could say the C-section was pain free, but it wasn't. It was actually pretty painful. You can feel pretty much everything except the actual cutting of your skin. I could feel like pushing, pulling and slamming of all my organs, trying to get her out and everything back into place. That being said, looking at my daughter, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

First family picture!

Abigail Grace Huff 05/11/2013 5:39am

7lbs 14oz.

Proud daddy!

The next 72 hours are a bit spotty. So many people in and out of our room. Family and nurses. Our stay was great, but we were so ready to get home and start our new life.

I'll never forget the drive home. I've never been so stressed in my life. Sitting in the back seat of our car with our 2 day old daughter, during rush hour (yes, again). Billy made me play a game on my phone because every time he hit the brakes I would gasp! Let the fun begin....